Premium
sex and sin, witchcraft and the devil in late‐colonial Mexico
Author(s) -
BEHAR RUTH
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1987.14.1.02a00030
Subject(s) - superstition , ethnohistory , colonialism , christianization , conscience , history , gender studies , ethnology , sociology , religious studies , anthropology , christianity , law , political science , philosophy , archaeology
Analysis of Mexican Inquisition cases can shed light on various aspects of religion and belief that have gone largely unexplored in the ethnohistory of Mexico: the course that Christianization took during the 18th century, the role that women played in it, and how it affected the racially mixed areas that were growing in importance as the colonial era drew to a close. Men and women in these areas were intensely involved with beliefs linking witchcraft, sex, sin, and the devil, and constantly juggled these beliefs with contradictory beliefs fostered by the Catholic Church. The Inquisition, which played such a large role in creating these crises of conscience, paradoxically came to abandon its pursuit of “superstition” by the late 18th century, as inquisitors came to see these men and women as members of a lower class, not worthy of being held to account.